THE mother of the week-old baby who was breastfed by a mentally ill woman infected with HIV/AIDS in the nursery of the Victoria Jubilee Hospital last September has filed a negligence lawsuit in the Supreme Court.

The suit was filed after the hospital, in keeping with a court order, released to the family the medical record of the baby who was breastfed.

The family was forced to make the application for the record, through attorney Chukwueneka Cameron, after writing letters last September to the South East Regional Health Authority, Victoria Jubilee Hospital and the Ministry of Health in an effort to obtain the medical record, but in vain

The South East Regional Health Authority, Victoria Jubilee Hospital and the Attorney General are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

The breastfeeding incident occurred on September 3, 2011 after the mentally ill woman, who was at the hospital to deliver her own child, made her way into the nursery and proceeded to breastfeed the baby.

A nurse on the ward intervened in the matter and the baby was taken from the woman. The baby was treated with antiretroviral drugs.

The downtown Kingston-based hospital has since implemented procedural security changes.